In general, there are essentially two ways of making stuffed foods. The first category of stuffed foods, such as Chinese steamed buns with stuffing, western-style salad bread, etc., are prepared by putting a stuffing in a dough or bread completely or partially. The second category of stuffed foods, such as rolled pancake with sautéed beef, and spring rolls that originate in northern China, as well as tacos that originate in Mexico, are prepared by taking the following steps: a stuffing is placed on a thin pastry case; and the portions of the pastry case which are not currently covered with the stuffing are folded toward the stuffing.
Stuffed foods of the second category, such as Mexican tacos, are not prepared simply by feeding or squeezing a stuffing into a dough in an irregular manner. In fact, the process of preparing stuffed foods of the second category involves the steps of: placing an appropriate amount of a stuffing at one end of a pastry case; folding inward and transversely the front edge of a portion of the pastry case not covered with the stuffing; folding the two opposing edges of the pastry case inward and transversely by consecutive steps of bending and curling. According to the prior art, it is necessary to keep the stuffing intact and keep the outside of the pastry case tidy and perfect at the end of production process. Hence, the production process of stuffed food with a pastry case is carried out mostly by hands, that is, workers manually feed the stuffing, fold the pastry case, and bend a semi-finished product until a finished product is produced to the full. As a result, the production process is not cost-efficient during an era of high wages.
Although the food processing industry has recently developed a processing device for folding a pastry case, the processing device thus developed has drawbacks, such as complicated structure, intricate procedure, and difficulty in an operation process and a control process. As a result, foods produced by the processing device have drawbacks, namely low yield, unevenness of the foods thus produced, and high production costs. In view of the drawbacks of the prior art, there is still room for improvement on the prior art.